Sunan Ibn Majah
Chapters on Dress
كتاب اللباس
Chapter 1
لِبَاسِ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah narrated to us; Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah narrated to us, from al-Zuhrī, from ʿUrwah, from ʿĀʾishah, who said: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, prayed wearing a khamīṣah with designs on it. He said, “Its designs distracted me. Take it to Abū Jahm and bring me his anbijāniyyah.”
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
Khamīṣah is a patterned garment; anbijāniyyah refers to a plain, unpatterned garment. Both garment names are retained to avoid obscuring the contrast in the report.
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah narrated to us; Abū Usāmah narrated to us; Sulaymān ibn al-Mughīrah informed me, from Ḥumayd ibn Hilāl, from Abū Burdah, who said: I went in to ʿĀʾishah, and she brought out for me a thick waist wrap of the kind made in Yemen, and one of these cloaks called a mulabbadah. She swore to me that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, died while wearing them.
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
Mulabbadah is a term for a cloak made thick or compacted; the Arabic names the garment without further description.
قَالَ دَخَلْتُ عَلَى عَائِشَةَ فَأَخْرَجَتْ لِي إِزَارًا غَلِيظًا مِنَ الَّتِي تُصْنَعُ بِالْيَمَنِ وَكِسَاءً مِنْ هَذِهِ الأَكْسِيَةِ الَّتِي تُدْعَى الْمُلَبَّدَةَ وَأَقْسَمَتْ لِي لَقُبِضَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ فِيهِمَا .
Mulabbadah names a type of cloak, and its exact construction is not described in the report.
Is retaining ‘mulabbadah’ with a concise note preferable to a more specific textile gloss?
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Aḥmad ibn Thābit al-Jaḥdarī narrated to us; Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah narrated to us, from al-Aḥwaṣ ibn Ḥakīm, from Khālid ibn Maʿdān, from ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit, that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, prayed wearing a woolen wrap that he had tied with a knot.
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
Shamlah denotes a wrap or cloak; ‘woolen wrap’ is used as a concise garment gloss.
أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ صَلَّى فِي شَمْلَةٍ قَدْ عَقَدَ عَلَيْهَا .
Shamlah identifies a garment type that can be described broadly as a wrap or cloak; its material is not specified in this report.
Should the translation use a general ‘wrap’ rather than ‘woolen wrap’ absent an explicit material in the Arabic?
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā narrated to us; Ibn Wahb narrated to us; Mālik narrated to us, from Isḥāq ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Ṭalḥah, from Anas ibn Mālik, who said: I was with the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and he was wearing a Najrānī cloak with a thick border.
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
ʿAbd al-Quddūs ibn Muḥammad narrated to us; Bishr ibn ʿUmar narrated to us; Ibn Lahīʿah narrated to us; Abū al-Aswad narrated to us, from ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUmar ibn Qatādah, from ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn, from ʿĀʾishah, who said: I never saw the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, insult anyone, nor was a garment ever folded up for him.
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The report gives no further context for the garment being folded up for him, so the wording is kept literal without supplying an explanation.
قَالَتْ مَا رَأَيْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ يَسُبُّ أَحَدًا وَلاَ يُطْوَى لَهُ ثَوْبٌ .
The report does not explain the context or significance of a garment being folded up for the Prophet.
Should this clause remain literal without an explanatory interpretation?
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Hishām ibn ʿAmmār narrated to us; ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī Ḥāzim narrated to us, from his father, from Sahl ibn Saʿd al-Sāʿidī, that a woman came to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, with a burdah. (He asked, “What is a burdah?” He replied, “A shawl.”) She said, “Messenger of Allah, I wove this with my own hands so that I might clothe you with it.” The Messenger of Allah took it, as he needed it, and came out to us wearing it as his waist wrap. Then so-and-so son of so-and-so—a man whose name he mentioned that day—came and said, “Messenger of Allah, how beautiful this burdah is! Clothe me with it.” He replied, “Yes.”
When he went inside, he folded it and sent it to him. The people said to him, “By Allah, you did not do well: the Prophet wore it because he needed it, and then you asked him for it, though you knew that he does not turn away anyone who asks him.” He said, “By Allah, I did not ask him for it in order to wear it; rather, I asked him for it so that it might be my shroud.” Sahl said: It was his shroud on the day he died.
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The garment is called a burdah in the report, with the narrator clarifying it as a shawl (shamlah). The requester is left as ‘so-and-so son of so-and-so’; although the narrator says he named the man that day, the name is not present in this text.
جَاءَتْ إِلَى رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ بِبُرْدَةٍ - قَالَ وَمَا الْبُرْدَةُ قَالَ الشَّمْلَةُ - قَالَتْ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ إِنِّي نَسَجْتُ هَذِهِ بِيَدِي لأَكْسُوَكَهَا .
The report itself glosses burdah as shamlah; the English garment names do not map to a single precise modern garment term.
Does ‘burdah … a shawl’ preserve both the named garment and the narrator’s clarification?
فَأَخَذَهَا رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ مُحْتَاجًا إِلَيْهَا فَخَرَجَ عَلَيْنَا فِيهَا وَإِنَّهَا لإِزَارُهُ فَجَاءَ فُلاَنُ بْنُ فُلاَنٍ - رَجُلٌ سَمَّاهُ يَوْمَئِذٍ - فَقَالَ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ مَا أَحْسَنَ هَذِهِ الْبُرْدَةَ اكْسُنِيهَا .
The Arabic says the man’s name was mentioned that day but supplies only ‘so-and-so son of so-and-so’ in this text.
Should the placeholder be retained rather than inferred from another version?
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Yaḥyā ibn ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd ibn Kathīr ibn Dīnār al-Ḥimṣī narrated to us; Baqiyyah ibn al-Walīd narrated to us, from Yūsuf ibn Abī Kathīr, from Nūḥ ibn Dhakwān, from al-Ḥasan, from Anas, who said: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, wore wool, put on patched sandals, and wore a garment that was coarse, coarse.
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
Al-makhṣūf appears to describe footwear that has been patched; the term is retained in translation as ‘patched sandals.’ The Arabic repeats ‘coarse’ for emphasis.
قَالَ لَبِسَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ الصُّوفَ وَاحْتَذَى الْمَخْصُوفَ وَلَبِسَ ثَوْبًا خَشِنًا خَشِنًا .
Al-makhṣūf is a specialized description of footwear, apparently indicating repaired or patched footwear.
Is ‘patched sandals’ an adequate concise rendering of al-makhṣūf in this report?
Chapter 2
مَا يَقُولُ الرَّجُلُ إِذَا لَبِسَ ثَوْبًا جَدِيدًا
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah narrated to us; Yazīd ibn Hārūn narrated to us, saying: Aṣbagh ibn Zayd narrated to us; Abū al-ʿAlāʾ narrated to us, from Abū Umāmah, who said: ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb put on a new garment and said, “Praise belongs to Allah, who clothed me with that by which I cover my nakedness and adorn myself in my life.” Then he said: I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say: “Whoever puts on a new garment and says, ‘Praise belongs to Allah, who clothed me with that by which I cover my nakedness and adorn myself in my life,’ then turns to the garment that has become worn out or that he has cast aside and gives it in charity, will be in Allah’s care, in Allah’s protection, and under Allah’s covering, alive and dead.” He said this three times.
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The Arabic lists Allah’s care, protection, and covering as three distinct expressions. The final ‘he said it three times’ is retained without specifying more narrowly which wording was repeated.
ثُمَّ عَمَدَ إِلَى الثَّوْبِ الَّذِي أَخْلَقَ أَوْ أَلْقَى فَتَصَدَّقَ بِهِ كَانَ فِي كَنَفِ اللَّهِ وَفِي حِفْظِ اللَّهِ وَفِي سِتْرِ اللَّهِ حَيًّا وَمَيِّتًا " .
The report uses three closely related expressions—kanf, ḥifẓ, and sitr—for Allah’s care, protection, and covering.
Do ‘care,’ ‘protection,’ and ‘covering’ adequately preserve the three distinct Arabic expressions?
قَالَهَا ثَلاَثًا .
The Arabic says ‘he said it three times’ without identifying more narrowly whether the saying refers to the supplication or the report’s preceding words.
Should the final repetition note remain general as translated?
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Al-Ḥusayn ibn Mahdī narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Razzāq narrated to us; Maʿmar informed us, from al-Zuhrī, from Sālim, from Ibn ʿUmar, that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, saw ʿUmar wearing a white shirt and said, “Is this garment of yours washed, or is it new?” He replied, “No, rather it is washed.” He said, “Wear something new, live praiseworthily, and die a martyr.”
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The closing expression is a compact blessing or wish built on the repeated pattern jadīd, ḥamīd, shahīd; the translation preserves the three-part cadence.
قَالَ " الْبَسْ جَدِيدًا وَعِشْ حَمِيدًا وَمُتْ شَهِيدًا " .
The three imperatives form a rhythmic expression with related endings: new, praiseworthy, martyr.
Does ‘Wear something new, live praiseworthily, and die a martyr’ retain the concise cadence and meaning?
Chapter 3
مَا نُهِيَ عَنْهُ مِنَ اللِّبَاسِ
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Abū Bakr narrated to us; Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah narrated to us, from al-Zuhrī, from ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yazīd al-Laythī, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, forbade two ways of dressing. The two are wrapping oneself completely in a garment (ishtimāl al-ṣammāʾ) and sitting with one’s knees drawn up in a single garment, with none of it covering one’s private parts.
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The Arabic names the two postures using technical clothing terms. The brief glosses describe the wording without adding the fuller juristic definitions sometimes associated with these terms.
أَنَّ النَّبِيَّ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ نَهَى عَنْ لِبْسَتَيْنِ فَأَمَّا اللِّبْسَتَانِ فَاشْتِمَالُ الصَّمَّاءِ وَالاِحْتِبَاءُ فِي الثَّوْبِ الْوَاحِدِ لَيْسَ عَلَى فَرْجِهِ مِنْهُ شَىْءٌ .
The two clothing terms are technical, and their precise physical configurations are not fully described in this report.
Are the compact glosses sufficient while retaining the first term transliterated?
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah narrated to us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Numayr and Abū Usāmah, from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, from Khubayb ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from Ḥafṣ ibn ʿĀṣim, from Abū Hurayrah, that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, forbade two ways of dressing: ishtimāl al-ṣammāʾ and sitting with one’s knees drawn up in a single garment, with one’s private parts exposed toward the sky.
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The Arabic gives a compact name for the first clothing practice and describes the second posture by the exposure it causes; both are kept close to the wording of this report.
أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ نَهَى عَنْ لِبْسَتَيْنِ عَنِ اشْتِمَالِ الصَّمَّاءِ وَعَنِ الاِحْتِبَاءِ فِي الثَّوْبِ الْوَاحِدِ يُفْضِي بِفَرْجِهِ إِلَى السَّمَاءِ .
The first practice is given by a technical name; the report describes the second through exposure of the private parts toward the sky.
Does retaining the first term and glossing the second posture closely preserve this version’s wording?
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah narrated to us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Numayr and Abū Usāmah narrated to us, from Saʿd ibn Saʿīd, from ʿAmrah, from ʿĀʾishah, who said: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, forbade two ways of dressing: ishtimāl al-ṣammāʾ and sitting with one’s knees drawn up in a single garment while exposing one’s private parts toward the sky.
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The second-person Arabic wording is retained as a general ‘one’ construction in English; the posture term is accompanied by a concise gloss.
قَالَتْ نَهَى رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ عَنْ لِبْسَتَيْنِ اشْتِمَالِ الصَّمَّاءِ وَالاِحْتِبَاءِ فِي ثَوْبٍ وَاحِدٍ وَأَنْتَ مُفْضٍ فَرْجَكَ إِلَى السَّمَاءِ .
The report names the practices technically, then describes the second-person configuration by the resulting exposure.
Does the gloss with ‘one’s knees drawn up’ preserve the intended posture while keeping the explicit exposure condition?
Chapter 4
لُبْسِ الصُّوفِ
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah narrated to us; al-Ḥasan ibn Mūsā narrated to us, from Shaybān, from Qatādah, from Abū Burdah, from his father, who said to me: “My son, had you seen us when we were with the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, when rain fell on us, you would have thought that our smell was the smell of sheep.”
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The Arabic gives the comparison to the smell of sheep directly, without further explaining the cause of the smell.
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Muḥammad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Karāmah narrated to us; Abū Usāmah narrated to us; al-Aḥwaṣ ibn Ḥakīm narrated to us, from Khālid ibn Maʿdān, from ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit, who said: One day the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, came out to us wearing a Roman woolen tunic with narrow sleeves. He led us in prayer wearing it, with nothing else on him.
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
Jubbah is rendered as ‘tunic’; the report specifies its Roman style, wool fabric, and narrow sleeves.
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Walīd al-Dimashqī and Aḥmad ibn al-Azhar narrated to us; they both said: Marwān ibn Muḥammad narrated to us; Yazīd ibn al-Simṭ narrated to us; al-Waḍīn ibn ʿAṭāʾ narrated to me, from Maḥfūẓ ibn ʿAlqamah, from Salmān al-Fārisī, that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, performed ablution, then turned inside out a woolen tunic that he was wearing and wiped his face with it.
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Suwayd ibn Saʿīd narrated to us; Mūsā ibn al-Faḍl narrated to us, from Shuʿbah, from Hishām ibn Zayd, from Anas ibn Mālik, who said: I saw the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, mark sheep on their ears, and I saw him wearing a cloak as a waist wrap.
Chapter 5
الْبَيَاضِ من الثِّيَابِ
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Muḥammad ibn al-Ṣabbāḥ narrated to us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rajāʾ al-Makkī informed us, from Ibn Khuthaym, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: “The best of your garments are the white ones, so wear them and shroud your dead in them.”
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad narrated to us; Wakīʿ narrated to us, from Sufyān, from Ḥabīb ibn Abī Thābit, from Maymūn ibn Abī Shabīb, from Samurah ibn Jundab, who said: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: “Wear white garments, for they are purer and more pleasant.”
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
Aṭyab can mean better or more pleasant; ‘more pleasant’ preserves its evaluative sense alongside ‘purer.’
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Muḥammad ibn Ḥassān al-Azraq narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Majīd ibn Abī Rawwād narrated to us; Marwān ibn Sālim narrated to us, from Ṣafwān ibn ʿAmr, from Shurayḥ ibn ʿUbayd al-Ḥaḍramī, from Abū al-Dardāʾ, who said: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: “The finest thing with which you visit Allah in your graves and your mosques is white garments.”
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The Arabic uses an unusual expression for ‘visiting Allah’ in connection with graves and mosques; the wording is kept close to the source rather than replaced with an explanatory paraphrase. ‘White garments’ is supplied as the implied referent of ‘whiteness.’
قَالَ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ " إِنَّ أَحْسَنَ مَا زُرْتُمُ اللَّهَ بِهِ فِي قُبُورِكُمْ وَمَسَاجِدِكُمُ الْبَيَاضُ " .
The report’s wording about visiting Allah in graves and mosques is unusual; ‘white’ stands metonymically for white clothing.
Does the close rendering preserve the expression without imposing an explanation of how the phrase applies to graves and mosques?
Chapter 6
مَنْ جَرَّ ثَوْبَهُ مِنَ الْخُيَلاَءِ
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah narrated to us; Abū Usāmah narrated to us. And ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad narrated to us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Numayr narrated to us. Both routes are from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: “Allah will not look at the one who drags his garment out of pride on the Day of Resurrection.”